1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a battery module having a plurality of chargeable and dischargeable battery cells connected to each other, and more particularly to a cooling structure for the battery module.
2. Background Art
The battery module mounted in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles is configured by a combination of a large number of secondary batteries such as a lithium ion battery cell, a nickel hydride battery cell, or a nickel-cadmium battery cell. Charge and discharge currents of the battery module are generally large, and heat generation is also increased, as a result of which a temperature rise of the battery cell per se also increases. The temperature rise in the battery cell needs to be reduced as much as possible so as to be rapidly cooled from the view point of the lifetime of battery.
As a method of rapidly cooling the battery cell, there is a method using a refrigerant. There has been known a method in which a plurality of cells are coupled onto a surface of a cooling plate having a refrigerant channel through an insulating sheet so as to be cooled, and the refrigerant is supplied to the cooling plate to cool the battery cells (refer to JP-A-2010-62130).